F. Anthony Bushman

Systematic Life Styles for New Product Segmentation

Life style analyses have tended to focus on general life style versus specific product life styles, i.e., the specificity issue. These studies have led many companies to use life style varyables related to a specific product category or a brand. However, another key dimension of life style analysis, i.e., comprehensiveness of scope, has largely been ignored. This article suggests there is considerable power in systematically studying specificity and comprehensiveness of life styles for segmenting markets for new products.

Special section on product development: Introduction

Early in 1980 a general call for research papers on the subject of product development was widely dlstnbuted m the appropnate academic dlsclplmes and m selected busmess firms Over the followmg year we received a flow of manuscripts from which were selected the ones appearmg m this issue Customary blind reviewing procedures were used These papers represent research on important topics related to new product development and marketmg Geese and Welsenberger address the career paths of product managers-how they enter the marketing profession and advance through the orgamzatlon They develop profiles of product managers’ educational background, training, and personal skills Moore’s article classifies what IS typically covered m concept tests and notes dlssatlsfactlons with concept testing He suggests different research approaches for concept generatlon, screening, and concept evaluation Rabmo and Moskowltz on a more detailed level address the issue of optlmlzmg the product development process by usmg systematic vanatlons of product ingredients through fractional factonal designs and nonlinear quadratic equations What these papers do not reveal, however, 1s a potentially dangerous and costly mlsdlrectlon of new product research While new product development and management has been practiced as an active busmess dlsclplme smce late m the eighteenth century, it has been taught m umversmes only m the very recent past Engmeenng courses have existed for many years Speclahzed centers m such subspecialties as mdustnal design exist of various schools, but the management of the task first evolved m the 195Os, and even today we find courses on new product marketing management at fewer than one hundred schools

Direct Marketing: An Underdeveloped Marketing Frontier

When Peter Drucker claimed that distribution was the last frontier for marketers, his claim was dramatic and broad. One distribution and promotion approach that has not achieved the sophistication of other aspects of marketing is an underdeveloped marketing approach referred to as “direct marketing.” Direct Marketing is non-personal selling, where merchandise is purchased without seeing the actual product or negotiating the price or delivery terms. The offering is made by direct mail, television, telephone, or printed ads in newspapers, magazines and catalogs. It is estimated that over 6,000 firms do direct marketing and spend about

A Model For Improving Teaching Effectiveness of Marketing Professors

18 to

What are the qualities of a good marketing article

20 billion annually.

Two-way television: A tool for new product research

This article presents a model for improving the teaching effectiveness of marketing professors. The model suggests a hierarchy of cognitive objectives and affective objectives as well as a taxonomy of teaching styles that are hypothesized to be most appropriate for each objective. In addition, an evolutionary contingency theory of education is proposed.

Book Reviews : Advertising and communication management by Michael L. Ray (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982, 640 pages,

This study evaluates eighty marketing articles to determine what article attributes lead to high ratings by businessmen and students. The two most important attributes of good articles are clarity and relevance. Theoretical, analytical, or conceptual articles can be rated highly as long as they are clear, practical and interesting to the reader. Ratings do not appear to be any different for people with different levels of education, age, or years of business experience.